Human Bioethics

In class, we’ve been discussing the four traditional principles of medical ethics, as well as the role that doctors played during medical experiments performed by the Nazis on Jewish prsioners during World War II.

Listen to the short podcast, from the “Philosophers Zone,” a podcast produced in Australia (sent to you via E-mail). 

Do you agree with the psychiatrist speaker? Should we abandon autonomy as an ethical principle in psychiatry? Please enter your comments about this episode.

In class, we discussed the actions of some groups who use graphic images of aborted fetuses and compare legal abortions to the Nazi Holocaust. For an example of one such group, click here (by including this link, I do not necessarily mean that I agree with this form of expression).

Questions for Discussion:

• What is your reaction to such tactics?
• Is the moral message such that it justifies more extreme images and rhetoric?
• What is the likely effect on the target audience of such messages?
• Does this approach advance the pro-life cause?

Enter your comments below.

In class, we discussed the “pile of parts” view of a person, v. the substance view. In this podcast, we examine the two competing views on human personhood, and we see why persons are like cars. Please click on the link below to listen to the podcast, then write a brief comment.

Podcast File

In our Principles of Bioethics Class, we discussed the sticky problem of how we justify our choices when moral rules seem to come into conflict with each other. A recent CedarEthics Podcast deals with this topic. Please click on the link below to listen, then share your brief comments here.

Podcast File

What is a podcast?

• Create an audio file
• Save it to our server
• Link to it like any other Web site link
• If you like, you can use a special Flash “player” to make this more intuitive, and to keep your blog visible while the file plays
• WordPress does this automatically with a plug-in (not available with the free hosted version)

Some Cool Examples:

• The Word Nerds (great show - watch out for some rude words, but well documented when an episode is not family-appropriate)
• The Celtic Folk Podcast (great music, but online podcast player hard to get to)
• The CedarEthics Podcast (err . . . ahem, my own podcast, with examples of how to elicit student interaction with comments)

Welcome to my blog about blogging! (cute, huh?)

Goals of the Session:

• Learn how to start blogging (and how to keep going!)
• Learn how to provide enhanced content for students
• Learn how to build in interactivity and assessment
• Learn how to add audio files (PodCasting 101)

What is a Blog?

• An easy-to-maintain Web site
• An automatically updated journal (Blog is short for “Weblog”)
• A content manager that is ideal for teaching and learning

Adding Content:

• Add “posts,” arranged chronologically, most recent first
• Formatting is automatic
• Link to other articles on the Web
• Add pictures, tables, and other media
• Examples:
  • Academic article
  • News article
  • Blog

Comments and Their Use in a Class Assigment:

• Assign a reading (include a link to it in your blog post, if you like)
• Ask students to post a comment about the assignment
• Typical rules:
  • No more than two or three paragraphs
  • Must use complete sentences
  • Must use good style and punctuation
• Examples:
  • Not: i thnk capital punish. is bad, cuz u shouldn’t kill peeple
  • Rather: In my opinion, capital punishment is morally wrong because it violates the Fifth Commandment (Ex. 20:13).
• Give an exact date/time this is due (when posted, comments have this information included)
• Read the comments, and react to these in your next class session

Some Cool Examples of Using Blogs for Education:
(click on the following links, and a new window will open up - close the window to return here)

• Dr. April Crommett’s blog (for her class on Exercise and Sports Science)
• Dr. Scott Dixon’s blog (for his class on Campus Ministries)
• Soulful Bioethics (Director’s Blog for Center for Bioethics)

Syndication (or not):

• RSS tags and what they do
• Marking your blog as private
• Controlling comments